John Lennon’s furious letter to Paul McCartney up for auction

A letter from John Lennon to Paul McCartney written a year after the Beatles split up is under the hammer.

The missive was fired off days after the publication of an interview conducted with McCartney by music weekly Melody Maker, in which he was critical of his former bandmates.

The three-page mimeographed letter that Lennon, which was signed and inscribed by Lennon, is currently up for auction on the Gotta Have Rock And Roll website.

The item is described as, “John Lennon's scathing reply to Paul McCartney's published interview in the November 20, 1971 issue of Melody Maker, where Paul shared his thoughts on John and Yoko, the dissolution of the Beatles' business partnership and more.”

The lot description continues: “John was so furious when he read the interview that he sent this three-page, signed and hand-annotated letter, addressed to Paul, to Melody Maker, for publication, asking them in his own handwriting for equal time.

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“The letter is dated November 24, 1971, just a few days after Paul's interview appeared in the magazine (only a year and a half after the Beatles officially broke up), while they were still going through the financial, and apparent personal, reckonings of the break-up.”

The letter was also published (with some edits) in the December 4, 1971 issue of Melody Maker.

The bidding starts at $20,000 (around £16,560) but is expected to reach between $30,000 - $40,000.

At the time of writing there were no bids yet placed on the 14-day auction.

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• The Beatles
• John Lennon
• Paul McCartney